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fabio.degani
New member
Does anyone know a cool sofware for writing drums ? I use cakewalk midi but I wish to have more options. Thanks
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brzilian
New member
fabio.degani said:
What software are you using? HS2004 and Sonar add new drum track creation tools that are very easy to use.
mojew
New member
when i put together demos for my band to learn songs to i program drums in propellorheads reason and just import a wav to cakewalk. sounds great. the reason drum samples are top notch!
Paul881
Look Mom, I can play!
1)NI Battery is a highly regarded drum synth.
2)You could use Live synth pro with drum soundfonts (unless you have a creative sound card, in which case you can use s/fonts direct)
3)You could use Session Drummer depending on what version of Cakewalk you have.
4) Or fxpansion Dr-008 drum synth.
2)You could use Live synth pro with drum soundfonts (unless you have a creative sound card, in which case you can use s/fonts direct)
3)You could use Session Drummer depending on what version of Cakewalk you have.
4) Or fxpansion Dr-008 drum synth.
guitar ed
New member
There's really no magic program out there that can read your mind and convert your mental images into a studio-quality drum track! I'm pressed for time a lot myself, but you can't get around the fact that drum programming takes TIME !!! Weather you use Cakewalk or not, most MIDI drum programming involves a piano roll or a grid of some type. You have to put the kicks in, and the snares, and the hats, etc., etc. For me, Sonar is just fine for drum programming. Session Drummer, Slicy Drummer, Drag & Drop Drummer will give you patterns to use as starting points, or maybe even inspiration when starting a new tune from scratch, but there's a lot of searching through hundreds of patterns to find the right one for a particular part of your song. Talk about time consuming!!
I haven't used it myself, but I understand that Drumagog will let you tap on a table top and can actually convert those taps into a MIDI file (???)
Bottom line, in my opinion, (and a few others here, too) pick your favorite piano roll, and pound away until you're comfortable programming this way. After a short time of trial and error, you'll soon discover that there's no better way to program your drums.
Just my two cents worth!!!
ed
I haven't used it myself, but I understand that Drumagog will let you tap on a table top and can actually convert those taps into a MIDI file (???)
Bottom line, in my opinion, (and a few others here, too) pick your favorite piano roll, and pound away until you're comfortable programming this way. After a short time of trial and error, you'll soon discover that there's no better way to program your drums.
Just my two cents worth!!!
ed
Porter
aka WookieMan
fabio.degani,
I'm not expert at 'composing' drums... I use the term composing because I can't play them and I 'arrange' them. I use the drum grid in Sonar XL. I also listen to CD's (if I don't know how I want them to sound) and try and find similar songs and work out the drums in those songs, I put in a standard 4 beat progression and go from there.... Slicy Drummer is handy for a kick start however I like to program all drums by hand... the last song I recorded I programmed them all by hand and every hit has a different velocity... I guess it depends on how realistic you want it to be..
Porter
I'm not expert at 'composing' drums... I use the term composing because I can't play them and I 'arrange' them. I use the drum grid in Sonar XL. I also listen to CD's (if I don't know how I want them to sound) and try and find similar songs and work out the drums in those songs, I put in a standard 4 beat progression and go from there.... Slicy Drummer is handy for a kick start however I like to program all drums by hand... the last song I recorded I programmed them all by hand and every hit has a different velocity... I guess it depends on how realistic you want it to be..
Porter
R
_ronin75_
New member
guitar ed said:
now THAT I want to hear
I also think drum programming is a hassle ...
laying down a simple pattern cant be that hard .. but to actually make a complete drumtrack fills and all is hard for me
coz to most non drummers the kick snare hihat combinations is all that we usually focus on what the hell are you supposed to do with all those symbals snare rolls in fills etc..
I share your pain brother
porter
did you use a cal file for that velocity thing or did you do that by hand ??
Porter
aka WookieMan
_ronin75_ said:
By hand!!! It didn't take too long.... just drawing the velocities into the Drum Map view... it's quite handy.
Porter
R
_ronin75_
New member
thx man that was quick
I tried to use acal script for that
and I just gave in a percentage ...
and he altered all the values
but for some reason the script totally screwed up my file splits in sonar ... so I'm kinda looking for a good one for that ...
or perhaps I might want to Isolate the drums in a seperate project ...
I tried to use acal script for that
and I just gave in a percentage ...
and he altered all the values
but for some reason the script totally screwed up my file splits in sonar ... so I'm kinda looking for a good one for that ...
or perhaps I might want to Isolate the drums in a seperate project ...
moskus
The Creator of Æ, Ø and Å
Not that I know of, but it's been a while since I used it.guitar ed said:
It triggers by a soundsource (can be a track in Sonar, or realtime input from microphone if using Input Monitoring), and will replace whatever sound you make by a sample. Perfect if you've recorded drums on seperate tracks and suddenly you find that you don't like the snare. Then just replace it with Drumagog.
With 5 Drumagog-plugins I played a whole kit on my pillows.
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fabio.degani
New member
The problem is the sound
Thank you all for posting here. I'll take some suggestions.
When I write drums in Cakewalk I write my own patterns, and I write the whole thing changing the velocity of every note and make the thing more expressive, sometimes I put "mistakes" on my songs to meke them sound more "natural". (I don't speak english very well, I hope I could express myself)
My problem is, for expample: There is a song where I do not want to use the standard snare drum of Cakewalk, I wish to use the snare drum similar to the one used in "St. Anger" of Metallica. I do like the snare drum sound. What can I do ? In which program can I chosse among more types of snare and cymbals ?
Another situation: In a recent song I made, I wanted a very heavy floor-tom sound, but the soundfont in Cakewalk soundede very week (no sustain), and I couldn't hear it playing guitars tuned in C...The solution was to put reverb on the drums (yes, I did it).
So, the problem is no to write drums, I can write anything I want the drum to do, I just want to jave more "flexible" sound.
Thank you all !
Thank you all for posting here. I'll take some suggestions.
When I write drums in Cakewalk I write my own patterns, and I write the whole thing changing the velocity of every note and make the thing more expressive, sometimes I put "mistakes" on my songs to meke them sound more "natural". (I don't speak english very well, I hope I could express myself)
My problem is, for expample: There is a song where I do not want to use the standard snare drum of Cakewalk, I wish to use the snare drum similar to the one used in "St. Anger" of Metallica. I do like the snare drum sound. What can I do ? In which program can I chosse among more types of snare and cymbals ?
Another situation: In a recent song I made, I wanted a very heavy floor-tom sound, but the soundfont in Cakewalk soundede very week (no sustain), and I couldn't hear it playing guitars tuned in C...The solution was to put reverb on the drums (yes, I did it).
So, the problem is no to write drums, I can write anything I want the drum to do, I just want to jave more "flexible" sound.
Thank you all !
Paul881
Look Mom, I can play!
fabio,
Interesting post. If your sound comes from a soundfont, you could import it into Viena Sound Studio and alter its sound and pitch. Cakewalk drums cannot be altered much, apart from putting fx on them.
Out there in the WWW land, there are many drum sounds, soundfonts and WAV samples that can be used to construct your own drum sounds. NI Battery for example can import them in many formats and then you can alter their sounds by means of built in filters etc.
Also, other samplers can be used to play downloaded sounds and midi used to trigger them. Or Piano Roll View.
Interesting post. If your sound comes from a soundfont, you could import it into Viena Sound Studio and alter its sound and pitch. Cakewalk drums cannot be altered much, apart from putting fx on them.
Out there in the WWW land, there are many drum sounds, soundfonts and WAV samples that can be used to construct your own drum sounds. NI Battery for example can import them in many formats and then you can alter their sounds by means of built in filters etc.
Also, other samplers can be used to play downloaded sounds and midi used to trigger them. Or Piano Roll View.
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fabio.degani
New member
Cool
Paul,
Thank you. I have found many snare and cymbals samples to download. Is it possible to use those .WAV samples in Cakewalk as I write MIDI ?
Thaks again
Paul,
Thank you. I have found many snare and cymbals samples to download. Is it possible to use those .WAV samples in Cakewalk as I write MIDI ?
Thaks again
carlosguardia
New member
As Paul said, you can use the Vienna SF Editor to convert the .wav files to a .sf2 sound font that you can later utilize via a midi controller.
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fabio.degani
New member
UHU !
That's great ! Now...the final question: What command shall I use in Cakewalk to "insert" this .sf2 file in order to use it as a MIDI ?
thank you so much.
That's great ! Now...the final question: What command shall I use in Cakewalk to "insert" this .sf2 file in order to use it as a MIDI ?
thank you so much.
Paul881
Look Mom, I can play!
You either need a Creative soundcard which supports soundfonts direct ( a bad choice, their soundcards are not good audio) or a soundfont wrapper like Live Synth Pro (for a few $'s) which runs in Cakewalk as a Dxi, which you can then trigger with your midi keyboard.
What soundcard do you have and what Cakey product do you use?
What soundcard do you have and what Cakey product do you use?
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fabio.degani
New member
#@*@!!
I am very stupid ! I bought a very expensive Soundblaster ! (Just kidding...why is it bad audio ? I think everything sounds so great !)
Here in Brazil we don't have many options for these very especific imported stuff, when we find it...it's veeeerry expensive. And I didn't know this site before I bought this card.
Anyway...it suports soundfonts, and I use cakewalk proaudio 9. And it has that cool front pannel too.
I am very stupid ! I bought a very expensive Soundblaster ! (Just kidding...why is it bad audio ? I think everything sounds so great !)
Here in Brazil we don't have many options for these very especific imported stuff, when we find it...it's veeeerry expensive. And I didn't know this site before I bought this card.
Anyway...it suports soundfonts, and I use cakewalk proaudio 9. And it has that cool front pannel too.
carlosguardia
New member
How about this for a nice panel?!
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...3039696763/g=home/search/detail/base_id/55322
Carlos
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...3039696763/g=home/search/detail/base_id/55322
Carlos
Paul881
Look Mom, I can play!
Re: #@*@!!
No, you are not stupid. But for the money you may have got more of a pro card. The soundblaster range is a general purpose card, mainly aimed at gamers, rather than musicians. But in Brazil, it may be difficult to get stuff, so your soundblaster would be okay. Which one do you have?
If you want to check out soundfonts, just search the www for them, there are zillions to choose from. I have over 30 soundfont drum kits plus many, many drum loops in wav format.
Don't forget, some soundfonts come in a compressed format and you will need a decompresser. But most soundfont sites will have those and they are free.
This is a great thread for using soundfont drums:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?postid=274064
Plus check out soundfont sites:
http://www.hammersound.net/
http://www.melodymachine.com/
Plus, if you want to check out Ethan Winner's great site for Soundfonts (he is a member of this BBS):
http://www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html
fabio.degani said:
No, you are not stupid. But for the money you may have got more of a pro card. The soundblaster range is a general purpose card, mainly aimed at gamers, rather than musicians. But in Brazil, it may be difficult to get stuff, so your soundblaster would be okay. Which one do you have?
If you want to check out soundfonts, just search the www for them, there are zillions to choose from. I have over 30 soundfont drum kits plus many, many drum loops in wav format.
Don't forget, some soundfonts come in a compressed format and you will need a decompresser. But most soundfont sites will have those and they are free.
This is a great thread for using soundfont drums:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?postid=274064
Plus check out soundfont sites:
http://www.hammersound.net/
http://www.melodymachine.com/
Plus, if you want to check out Ethan Winner's great site for Soundfonts (he is a member of this BBS):
http://www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html
tubedude
New member
Dude... I picked up the DR-008 (super great fantastic program, by the way, I liked it better than Battery, much better)
I ordered a 49 key midi controller keyboard (a Studiologic) for like $140 on ebay, and loaded drumkit from hell into the DR-008 and I use my midi keyboard as a trigger. Dr-008 and drumit from hell automatically set up together and you can be playing drums in 1 minute.
It took me about a day or two to get a feel for where all the drums are at on the keyboard, but within 20 minutes I could play complete beats with hats or ride and now I can do fills, hi hat tricks, cymbals, all in real time sitting there playing. Its rather easy really.
When I am reay to record a song, I set up a click track all the way though, then I record a rough of the bass or guitar part so I dont get lost, then I start recording and I'll play all my beats all the way through in real time. If anything is real far off I'll fix it in the piano roll when I'm done. Then I'll go though and do rolls and fills, and then I'll go back and add trickier stuff or make up new things for it. It is time consuming, but you dont realize it til after the fact.
DFH is all multi sampled, too, so when you hit the key lightly, you hear a lightly hit snare, not just a snare turned down lower. When you hit it harder, you hear a snare that was hit harder in reality. Its really a great dynamic setup and mine works flawlessly. Worth every penny.
I ordered a 49 key midi controller keyboard (a Studiologic) for like $140 on ebay, and loaded drumkit from hell into the DR-008 and I use my midi keyboard as a trigger. Dr-008 and drumit from hell automatically set up together and you can be playing drums in 1 minute.
It took me about a day or two to get a feel for where all the drums are at on the keyboard, but within 20 minutes I could play complete beats with hats or ride and now I can do fills, hi hat tricks, cymbals, all in real time sitting there playing. Its rather easy really.
When I am reay to record a song, I set up a click track all the way though, then I record a rough of the bass or guitar part so I dont get lost, then I start recording and I'll play all my beats all the way through in real time. If anything is real far off I'll fix it in the piano roll when I'm done. Then I'll go though and do rolls and fills, and then I'll go back and add trickier stuff or make up new things for it. It is time consuming, but you dont realize it til after the fact.
DFH is all multi sampled, too, so when you hit the key lightly, you hear a lightly hit snare, not just a snare turned down lower. When you hit it harder, you hear a snare that was hit harder in reality. Its really a great dynamic setup and mine works flawlessly. Worth every penny.